Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Quest System: Questions!

1) Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night actually needs a quest system? Do you believe a quest system is something that adds more depth and replay value to the game or may be something distracting and not very useful?

personally I think games like this don't need quest systems... but if they really want it in the game ok I guess... as long as progression is not controlled by those quests (eg locked doors, or areas you can't go to because the ones making the quests hasn't told you about the area... that to me is lame...)

If they are just fetch quests or "busy" quests I am ok with those... I don't want to see them

2) What character / characters do you believe will offer quests for Miriam to finish?

if there are multiple quest givers then ok... but is there is one main one I think it will be Dominique. In the interview she said she bosses Miriam around... that might be a clue... but who knows lol.

3) What kinds of quests do think the game will have, or would you like the game to have?

I prefer fetch quests that will open up new recipes for forging. alchemy, cooking etc...

4) What kinds of prizes do you expect the quests to offer? Rare or exclusive materials? Gear? Shards?

Knowledge?... is that fair to use as an answer? I think moves, recipes, or even secrets should be the prizes for completing the quests.

5) What do you think about continuous or unlimited quests? This exist in some MMORPGs. Some kind of quest that can be repeated infinitely, and you can receive the same reward again and again.

sure... that might be a great way to re-fight bosses. you can only re-fight the boss if you accept the quest lol.

6) Would you like if the game had some kind of quest that is mandatory to progress? Or maybe some quest that, if you don't do, you don't get the full castle / ending / true final boss?

No please... maybe one or two (like the first few ones) but having quests, to me ruins the immersive "adventuring" these games have... I feel if there is a quest available then I feel like I have to do it... I don't like that...  

7) Would you like if the second and third character's modes also had quests to complete?

yeah that would be cool to have character specific quests... but their move sets need to be fleshed out... including their inventory system (eg ability to use different weapons and equip different armor)

8) Portrait of Ruin had 37 quests. Order of Ecclesia had 36 quests. How many quests do you expect and/or want Bloodstained to have?

if they do have quests I would think over 100 lol... as long as they are not tied to the story I am cool with it.

I'm happy to see that quests have made it into the game. This style of game is great for questing as its gameplay already involves a great deal of backtracking. Quests lend purpose to the adventure.

Sure, quest rewards are great to have but I am not so concerned about the content of the rewards.

My primary concern with the questing system is that I want it to be used as a means of fleshing out the content of Miriam and NPC personalities and to add history and flavor to the setting and the story. I like the idea of quests being "little stories" for the player to get caught up in.

I will be disappointed if the storytelling assets on the development team do not shine through the quests.

1) Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night actually needs a quest system? Do you believe a quest system is something that adds more depth and replay value to the game or may be something distracting and not very useful?
A varied and situational question.  At the root I don't think this kind of game needs a quest system, since your primary source of new goodies is chests or monster drops(and in a way stats gained via leveling up).  And then, you have to ask yourself what kind of quests are even involved.  Do you have something like PoR that's more or less achievements that give a useful reward, or do you want it to be "real" quests with a heavy lore component that isn't required but can supplement the main narrative?  In general I don't think they add to replay, unless they're a quest you can only unlock on a new game+(in which it's less value and more held hostage), but those can be maddening for people who would rather just go through a game on the hardest difficulty and fullest experience from the outset.

2) What character / characters do you believe will offer quests for Miriam to finish?
Well really, they're sidequests.  Anything you can interact with that isn't trying to kill you is fair game to start one from.

3) What kinds of quests do think the game will have, or would you like the game to have?
4) What kinds of prizes do you expect the quests to offer? Rare or exclusive materials? Gear? Shards?
I'll combine these two.  I do like the notion of achievements-with-benefits.  Roughly, the way I'd do it if it were up to me would be to have several that offer progressive bonuses that will help power you up a little as you play, but to flesh it out I'd like to see some that are very specific to your play style, and maybe even some more tricky ones that offer heavier specific rewards when you take the actions to complete them.  Here's sort of a rough skeleton of what I mean.
First some generics:
<School of Hard Knocks I> - Take 1000 damage - max HP +10
<School of Hard Knocks II> - Take 5000 damage - max HP +20
<Hocus Pocus I> - Use magic 200 times - max MP +10
<Hocus Pocus II> - Use magic 1000 times - max MP +20
Now some focuses:
<Rawhide I> - Kill 300 monsters with a whip - whip base damage +3
<Kill it With Fire I> - Kill 300 monsters with a fire element attack - base damage of fire element attacks and spells +3
<Brutalizer I> - Deal 2500 physical damage - Strength +2
And as you can probably guess, if your weapon of choice was a flaming whip, you'd be triple-dipping on the bonuses.
Lastly, the ones that rely on much more specific actions:
<Tesla's Whipping Boy> - Defeat Baron von Mookdemon by electrocuting him with the pylons in his laboratory - base damage of electric element attacks and spells +15
BUT!  We don't want to have a situation where a player feels like they don't have a choice either and have to go for the questchievement on a one-shot deal like a boss.  So maybe the mechanics of the fight usually require you to short out the pylons in the boss room by zapping yourself; the previous quest is completed by making the boss eat his own zaps instead.  However, assuming you do the normal self-short method, you instead get:
<Static Cling> - Defeat Baron von Mookdemon while grounding the electrical output of the pylons in his laboratory - defense against electric damage +15
We're not done yet though.  Let's say the pylons, if left completely alone, will do more and more damage over time to you.  The idea is that you either take less damage by getting directly zapped, or get the boss zapped instead during the fight.  Either way, unless one of you is in the area of effect you're going to take the stacking damage, with the intent that you're going to die if you don't make it happen.  This brings us to the third possible quest of the fight:
<God of Thunder> - Defeat Baron von Mookdemon without either of you grounding the pylons in his laboratory - electric attack and defense +10
A bit better numbers-wise, but it also requires you to either tank the major damage or kill the guy fast enough you don't get fried. 
In the end you only get one bonus from the fight, but all are useful and the player can make a choice of what will be most useful to them.  One major problem with this idea though would be that you'd have to spoil people with the descriptions ahead of time to let them know what they could have done differently, or reveal it afterwards and force them to decide if they want to reload the game without saving to try for a different outcome.

Now... all that long-winded BS said, it's not likely anything like that is happening; at most I wouldn't expect to see anything other than the generic-types.  Going back to quests that are important to the story, to be done well they should be a bit longer, and have more tangible rewards like better armor and weapons.  Maybe even a few that award crystals you can't get as monster drops.  You could have this be reactive too, like if the player has been doing a lot of ice damage you get some equipment with a bonus to that damage type.  I'd prefer if they have some kind of puzzles, otherwise you just get what amounts to "Kill a Void Bear and bring back a Non-Euclidean Bear Ass".

5) What do you think about continuous or unlimited quests? This exist in some MMORPGs. Some kind of quest that can be repeated infinitely, and you can receive the same reward again and again.
Not a horrid idea, but needs some careful implementation.  If the reward is particularly useful, you run the risk of the player being able to use it to cheese the game.  If it's of limited use, or only useful the first half of the game, you get people sitting on a pointless mountain of the reward long after they have any reason to do anything with it.  To an extent drops from monsters also suffer this problem, especially if they're a consumable like a potion or whatever.  It might be better to tie this sort to another type of progression, like killing enough treants gives you a board, enough boards and the safe zone with shop NPCs gets fortified allowing them to sell better stuff, but maybe you can choose where the boards are placed and that determines roughly what will be available to you first.

6) Would you like if the game had some kind of quest that is mandatory to progress? Or maybe some quest that, if you don't do, you don't get the full castle / ending / true final boss?
Yes, absolutely.  I'm a sucker for the hidden-quest-to-unlock-real-final-areas thing.  On a side note, always give such hidden areas the most badass song in the game(except possibly the final boss music), it really cranks up the mood. 
For more mid-game required quests, I go again to choice and would suggest having a selection players can choose, with so many needed to progress.  Or alternately, you can select the order to tackle them in, but each holds a piece needed to get back to primary progress.  It doesn't even have to be blatant either, the game can simply come to a point where you either go over The Spooky Walkway or cross The Lake of Slime, each giving a new power, the NPCs setting you a task in each that leads to a power.  But, once you come to the end of either you find you need both powers to advance through That Tower on the Other Side of Both.

7) Would you like if the second and third character's modes also had quests to complete?
Simple answer, yeah.  However, it's long-since standard in games like this that secondary characters will almost never have the degree of fleshed-out quests or objectives that the main one does, and might strip out everything except the most raw combat aspect of the game.  Also, as secondary characters, how complete is their own story and motivations compared to the main one?  Do you have the time or interest to breath them full of purpose the way you did with the main character?  How much room is there for them to do something else within the framework being held up by the leading role's jaunt through the game?  So sure it's better, but I don't expect it.

8) Portrait of Ruin had 37 quests. Order of Ecclesia had 36 quests. How many quests do you expect and/or want Bloodstained to have?
Depends entirely on what they are.  If it's questchievements the only real limit is how many extra conditionals you feel like coding in.  If it's full-fledged quests, obviously there will be fewer, further influenced by just how complex they are and how much writing goes into them.